The invention is directed to a method and apparatus for SZ-stranding of electrical and/or optical stranding elements which are supplied to a device having a reversibly driven stranding disk associated with a tube store so that the unstranded stranding elements lie on the surface of the tube store as they approach the stranding disk.
In SZ-stranding by utilizing a device having tube stores, the supplied stranding elements roll off of an outside surface of the rotating tube store which transmits the torque thereto. The location of the greatest roll-off is in the region of the perforated guide disk and a location of the less roll-off in the region of the stranding disk. Since the stranding disk itself represents a roll-off brake, torques are transmitted from the entry region onto the stranding region dependent on the distribution of the frictional forces being transmitted faster or more slowly, dependent on the torsional stiffness of the respective stranding elements. In the stranding region itself, the braking movements at the stranding disk are compensated either directly or delayed so that the stranding incurs with a low torsion or with no torsion at all. Excessively high frictional forces of the tube store are a disturbing factor in the distribution of the stranding element on the tube store and for the stranding process itself. These frictional forces can lead to a modulation of the forces at the stranding point which is depended on the store content. In addition, an excessive concentration of wrapping on the tube store can occur at the entry side.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,610, whose disclosure is incorporated by reference thereto and which claims priority from German application No. 32 10 611, a device for SZ-stranding of electrical and optical stranding elements utilizing a tube or pipe store was disclosed. The material of the tube store is composed of a carbon fiber material bonded with hardened resin. In this way, it became possible to reduce the undesirable high frictional forces to a certain degree and these undesirable high frictional forces occurred, for example, given a tube store formed of polished steel. However, an undesirable high wear of the tubes constructed of carbon fiber can also occur.